A special form of splicing is the so-called “flying splice”, whereby two material webs are connected at full processing speed and corresponding rotational speed of the reels involved, i.e. the old and the new reels. If a reel is being unwound continuously in the course of a production process and is running out, a material web that is withdrawable or withdrawn from the new reel is spliced by means of a flying splice at full speed onto the material web withdrawn from the old reel. The material feed may then continue uninterrupted to a downstream installation, for example a packaging installation or the like. During splicing it is necessary to activate various elements that are involved in the splicing operation. The elements involved in the splicing operation include first of all a press-on roller, which presses the new material web onto the old material web, and a cutting knife, which separates the old reel from the material web that arises after splicing.
In the prior art it is known to use, for a flying splice, speed-controlled drives for the individual elements involved in the splicing operation and depending upon a position of the new reel to activate the elements involved in the splicing operation for example by means of valves. Taking dead times of the valves into consideration, a starting time is calculated for the valves. In this case, the elements involved in the splicing operation are activated depending upon their respective speed. In this case, cycle times of the relevant automation directions and angular accuracy are crucial to the quality of the flying splice. Because of the considerable influence of the cycle times, mostly special and separate hardware is required. This results in additional cost and communication with the rest of the installation is not always guaranteed.